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Using grammar to make meaning

Jan 19, 2021 | Category: English

As a writer I know that I must select studiously the nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, etcetera, and by a careful syntactical arrangement make readers laugh, reflect or riot.Maya Angelou, Conversations...

#grammar #Making Meaning in English

What does improve children's writing?

Dec 01, 2017 | Category: writing

In my last post I discussed evidence that suggests grammar teaching does not lead to an improvement in children's writing. Although it seems implausible that grammar teaching would not be positively c...

#grammar #Slow Writing #Greg Ashman

Can grammar teaching improve pupils’ writing?

Nov 29, 2017 | Category: writing

Let me begin with an anecdote. The first time I ever really encountered the meta language of grammar was after finishing my degree in English Literature and embarking on a six-week course to qualify t...

#grammar #Dominic Wyse

Why study grammar?

May 12, 2016 | Category: writing

Trying to express complex thoughts in simple English ... is demanding, challenging and takes time.Terry Leahy There's been a lot of fuss over the past week about whether it's appropriate to assess chi...

#grammar #Daisy Christodoulou

If writing is magic, grammar is alchemy

Nov 09, 2015 | Category: writing

I really do not know that anything has ever been more exciting than diagramming sentences. I like the feeling the everlasting feeling of sentences as they diagram themselves.Gertrude Stein Writing i...

#grammar #Michael Rosen

The glamour of grammar: in context or not?

Feb 13, 2014 | Category: English

It's something of an understatement to say that glamour and grammar are not usually closely associated in many people's minds. One of the 100 words David Crystal uses to tell The Story of English is ‘...

#David Crystal #grammar #Alex Quigley #Education Endowment Foundation #Daisy Christodoulou #Debra Myhill

Principled curriculum design: the English curriculum

Dec 16, 2013 | Category: English

The tragedy of life is that one can only understand life backwards, but one must live it forwards Søren Kierkegaard Back in March 2013, I wrote about the principles underlying my redesign of a Keys St...

#Dylan Wiliam #grammar #Alex Quigley #Joe Kirby #Daisy Christodoulou #Debra Myhill #Threshold concepts

Redesigning a curriculum

Mar 25, 2013 | Category: English

Effective reform must start with the understanding that the curriculum is the central focus and the central business of schools. Effective curricula are the sina que non of the system that is capable...

#grammar #Daisy Christodolou #Robert Bjork #cultrural capital #desirable difficulties

The mathematics of writing

Oct 30, 2012 | Category: English

A mathematician, like a painter or a poet, is a maker of patterns… The mathematician’s patterns, like the painter’s or the poet’s must be beautiful; the ideas like the colours or the words, must fit t...

#Phil Beadle #grammar #writing #Dancing About Architecture #maths #Michael Swann

Creativity, analysis and comparison

Feb 11, 2012 | Category: English

English teachers have a tough gig. We need to constantly hone the hard-edged skill of analysis whilst simultaneously encouraging the fluffy stuff of creativity. There’s a lot said and written about cr...

#creativity #Sir Ken Robinson #grammar #analysis #comparison #Dickens #dumbing down #Toby Young